High School Reunions | To Go or Not To Go...

The other night I found myself late at night making the line at the nearest 711 to put gas in my car. To my surprise I bumped into a girl I once went to high school with. I’ve ran into her at local bars and occasionally seen her on my Facebook feed, so it was no awkward hello. Between the small talk she mentions high school, “our high school reunion is coming up! Are you gonna go?” With a slight smile, I shrugged my shoulders and responded, “I mean yeah, but that’s not for another few years.” Someone else chimed into the conversation and mentioned how they hated high school and most likely wouldn’t return. She nodded her head in agreement and then shook her head as if uncomfortable with the thought and said, “uhh I don’t think I’m going to go…”

I drove home that night actually surprised with her response. Luckily my high school wasn't the type to praise one person as far as claiming anyone to be the most popular, but the girl I ran into was pretty well known. She was in TV production, was always at the parties, and drove a pretty cool car senior year. Everyone knew who she was and I would say was probably the most friendly person in high school. I found it quite ironic that the girl who seemed to have had such a memorable high school experience would be the one to avoid revisiting old friends and teachers. 

You see my high school experience was slightly different. I was what you would call a floater. I floated around high school knowing people and being “cool” with them, but I was no where near popular. I was in theater freshman year and performed for my school’s talent show for three years straight. I won homecoming princess junior year, and was nominated prom queen senior year,  but I wouldn’t consider that being popular. I guess I was cool with enough people to vote for someone they kind of knew.  I get it, I sound full of myself, but I only hung out with three friends and already had a college boyfriend my senior year of high school. I was pretty much done with high school by junior year and barely spoke to anyone during that time.

So, in a greater span of things someone would assume that the girl who had loads of friends would look forward to a high school reunion more than the girl who couldn’t wait to get out.

The more I started to go deeper into my train of thought, I tried to understand what high school reunions ultimately resemble. You see, high school reunions back in the day was an opportunity to see where life had taken classmates throughout the years. In this generation, social media has allowed us to completely put all of our curiosities to rest. It’s facing your truth versus the valedictorian who found the cure to all diseases and the first boy who broke your heart who now discovered an app that sort of shy you away from that moment. 

So, is that the barrier? Are high school reunions just a reminder of how much time has passed? A time where the world seemed filled with possibilities and teachers with flamboyant PowerPoints filled us with motivation and dreams. To finally have that victorious moment where we threw our caps in the air to only have them fall right back down with the harsh reality that maybe it isn’t that simple?

Something that I’ve learned in the past 7 years of already being graduated from high school is that no one has their shit together. Those who, let’s say, have a house and kids and what Facebook shows as a successful relationship, still have struggles behind closed doors. For those who don’t…. you’re lying. The moment you realize that your 20’s are for learning and growing and making mistakes, the more you realize how relatable and REAL life is. Once you accept that truth, the less scary High School Reunions seem.

So, the question still stands, to go or not to go?

I say, dress your best, take advantage of the open bar, reminisce on your favorite old songs, and JUST GO!